Graduating ME Student Seeking Entry Level Job Advice

[Bad-Wolf]

Hi, I'm graduating this summer with my ME degree. I've started my job hunt and I have a few questions.

When looking for jobs I keep stumbling across positions that require a good 5-10 years of experience that fit the bill of my interests succinctly. For example, this boeing job fits most of my educational experience and interests:
http://jobs-boeing.com/huntington-b...al-system-design-&-analysis-engineer-3_4-jobs

I love working on mixed energy domain mechanical systems which involve complex real time control systems, essentially advanced robotics. I've taken an excessive number of graduate classes that I was allowed into because I wouldn't have made student status my senior year. I've taken robotics, mechatronics, dynamic systems and control courses, machine vision course and a few more beyond what was required for me to graduate and I've come to really enjoy these types of problems.

With that said, my question is this. What entry level job should I be looking for that will prepare me both in terms of meeting the level of experience that an employer is looking for and will give me exposure that will prepare me for work on a job as listed in my link?

I'm fiercely self motivated and my resume is likely better than most for a new graduate although it has more of an academic research bias. I just don't want to waste time on a job that is not going to prepare me for the next big step.

Best Regards and thanks for guidance.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

You're just out of school and you seek a job that requires a minimum of five years experience? No Human Resources department will bother forwarding your resume. I know, this is a catch 22 problem: How do you get experience unless they employ you; but you can't get employed unless you have experience.

To break this log-jam, try looking for entry level work on embedded control systems for aircraft. You will learn the coding standards, the practices, you'll work with the engineering staff who design this stuff very closely, and you can pick their brains. If you're any good, they'll notice your abilities, and then make a position just for you.

What you need to know is that engineering is not just about abstract problem solving. It's about designing systems so that they can be worked on by human beings, so that they can be fixed when they break, so that they don't break catastrophically, so that they don't wear and tear poorly, and so that they can give people plenty of warning before those limits are reached.

In other words, if you're thinking that this stuff is just a lot of math, with perfect components, dream on. You need to know what the manufacturing processes are, what they cost, and what kind of performance to expect from them. Nobody straight out of school is going to know that.

Where I work, even with experienced engineers, we spend at least a year with them before they learn the performance and politics of our organization, and where the resources are. Once that year is up, we can usually turn them loose. Coming straight from school, not knowing how any company works, you'll be at a distinct disadvantage.

If you don't want to do programming, do an internship. You may not like life in a large company. You may find that you like working as a contractor instead.

Good Luck!

 

[Bad-Wolf]

Thanks a lot for the response!

I haven't read all of your response yet, only the first paragraph, but there appears to be some miscommunication.

I am NOT trying to get a job that requires 5 years of experience right out of school.

I am looking for a good starting job that will give me the kind of experience that in 5 years will prepare me for a job like the one I posted.

 

[Bad-Wolf]

Thanks for the response about embedded systems programming.

What kind of work should I be looking for, that a new graduate can get, and that will give me some exposure to the kinds of robotics/mechatronics/control system's knowledge that I will need so that in 5 years when I feel like moving on to a job like the one I posted I will be prepared?

I know working for any company is going to be good in the sense of getting used to office politics.

I also know that real systems require just as much knowledge of how your design is going to be manufactured as much as how your system is going to work which is something that requires real life experiences and can't be gotten from a textbook alone.

I also know that designs should be built in the perspective that they will require maintenance and that failure should happen gradually and gracefully so that it can be identified. I realize that these things become a part of you through real work and not just classroom studies.

I didn't once in my question say, "Herp, I want a job that requires 5 years of experience NOW please. :P " I'm guessing you read the first few paragraphs that I wrote and assumed that this was my complaint. This is my fault for not being specific at the start, TLDR and all that ;)

With that in mind I will reiterate my question because I figure no one will ever read this line and I could have just written about my opinion on ice cream or something.

What kind of work should I be looking that a new graduate can get that will give me some exposure to the kinds of robotics/mechatronics/control system's knowledge that I will need so that in 5 years when I feel like moving on to a job like the one I posted I will be prepared.

 

[Bad-Wolf]

I was also hoping you could give me some information about your career. What were some good moves and bad moves? Where do you think you have grown the most? Was there any work you don't feel has improved you as much as other things?

 

[Bad-Wolf]

To elaborate, my areas of interest have collected around precision automation. I especially enjoy projects where human operators cannot function or where human operators are being replaced. This can be UAV type systems where there is an operator, a manufacturing process that is run by an automated system, the ailerons or any of the control systems which humans interface with or any number of things that might loosely be called robotics. I find these problems always have interesting new dynamics that have never been done before.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

I wish I could say that I had a plan. My dream was to get one of those really cool high tech aerospace jobs and build the next really cool spacecraft . However, right when I graduated, the cold war had ended, the big defense contracts dried up and blew away. My brother lost his job in Aerospace. And I looked on in horror as over half of my class of part time students dried up and blew away in search of new jobs.

I was working as a telecommunications technician at a water utility. I took stock in what I was doing and realized that I had some pretty unusual and interesting toys to play with, and the work would be steady. Nobody gets rich doing this stuff, but nobody goes hungry either. I stayed at the company, and used my degree to get promoted. That was about 20 years ago.

During that time, I have learned about most aspects of SCADA and industrial control systems at a water utility, seen some amazing failure modes, and one day, I looked around and realized I was one of those senior engineers on staff. I don't feel like I know any more than I did before, even though I probably have; but I know I've seen some things that the newer staff need to know about.

I've also realized that, as I've gained experience, how rare common sense can be. I have learned that under stress and fatigue, people do some truly stupid things.

When you're immersed in this stuff, you tend to forget how complicated it really is. The most difficult part of engineering anything, be it a piece of embedded software, a product, a protocol, or a policy is to avoid too many features. After a while, even you, the engineer who created it, will forget why you things in a particular way.

Keep It Simple, Stupid!